KHRP has submitted a shadow report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The report is for consideration by the Committee in their upcoming review of the Turkish government’s observance of their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

In recent years Turkey claims to have instituted a variety of legislative reforms aimed at the empowerment of women. However, the lack of meaningful resources dedicated to ensuring their effective implementation, impedes such improvements from being realised by women in their daily lives. As outlined in KHRP’s report, women throughout Turkey, and Kurds in particular, continue to face a variety of barriers that effectively exclude them from full participation in social, political and economic life. Kurdish women experience substantial disadvantages, such as in their access to equal employment opportunities and in properly accessing state health and judicial provisions. Moreover, the government continues to fall short of the mark in tackling the gender-based violence that remains so pervasive throughout Turkey.

In 2004, KHRP, in collaboration with the Kurdish Women’s Project (KWP), issued practical guidelines for the substantive incorporation of principles of CEDAW in Turkey. Entitled The Charter for the Rights and Freedoms of Women in the Kurdish Regions and Diaspora, the report extrapolates the demands of Kurdish women for meaningful equality from the foundations of CEDAW. Accordingly, KHRP once again urges the Turkish government to consider compliance with the Charter as well as their obligations under CEDAW.

‘Without proper recognition of the Kurds as an ethnic minority, and of the significant social, economic and political barriers faced by women in general, the Turkish government will never be in a position to comply with its obligations under CEDAW,’ said KHRP Chief Executive Kerim Yildiz. ‘KHRP urges the Turkish government to adopt a more earnest, considered approach to the realisation of the principles outlined in CEDAW. For example, the collation of gender-disaggregated statistics and information would, at the very least, represent a significant step in the right direction.’

A copy of the submission can be downloaded from the KHRP website.